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LibOrientator consists of Orientator, an app for iPhone and iPad, a couple of special layers for BoinxTV and a library for iOS developers to include in their apps. LibOrientator was originally conceived for making great app demos for iPhone and iPad apps using the accelerometer and gyroscope of the iOS devices. But it can be used for other fun stuff as well: control a 3D object in BoinxTV or pinpoint your location on an on-screen moving map powered by Google Maps.

Orientator

Orientator is an app for iPhone and iPad. It reads out the values for device motion (Pitch, Roll and Yaw), the gyroscope (x,y,z), the accelerometer (x,y,z), location (latitude, longitude, altitude and accuracy), magnetometer (heading and accuracy) and the values for orientation (device and interface) and transmits them over a WiFi connection to BoinxTV running on your Mac where you can use the information to control several Layers. Orientator by itself is also fun to use if you like to look at the read-outs of the sensors which are displayed on the device screen when the app is running.

BoinxTV LibOrientator Enabled Layers

iOS Device Demo (3D)

The video source is mapped onto the screen of the device model (iPhone or iPad) and the 3D orientation of the model is controlled by Orientator on your iPhone or iPad. Great for demo and training videos for iPhone and iPad apps especially if they make use of the sensors in the iOS devices. See iOS Device Demo 3D.

Apple Design Award

A beautiful 3D object (the Apple Design Award that BoinxTV won in 2009) can be rotated using the sensor data from Orientator on the iPhone 4 or iPad 2. This Apple Design Award Layer is to demonstrate what you can do with LibOrientator.

Google Maps

Displays a map or satellite image powered by Google Maps. Your iPhone running Orientator provides the exact GPS location and the heading which is displayed on the map. Great for easy and efficient recording of guided tours of your town. See Google Maps Layer.

LibOrientator Framework

The library part of LibOrientator is a small static library that can easily be added to the source code of an iOS app by the app developer. This allows the sensor data of the iPhone to be sent to BoinxTV while the developer's app runs instead of the Orientator app.

Recording Demos and Training Videos of iOS Apps

1. Hook up your iPad 2, iPhone 4 or better to your Mac using the Apple Digital AV Adapter and a Matrox MXO2 or Blackmagic Intensity card. This way, the content of the screen will be transmitted in high resolution to the Mac where it can be used as a video source for BoinxTV. Alternatively you can use an AppleTV to receive the iPad screen if you don't want to wire your iPad. Read Using AppleTV To Capture An iOS Device Screen for further information.
2. On your Mac, run BoinxTV 1.8 or newer, use the Blank template and select the HDMI input device (Matrox or Blackmagic) as the Main Camera under Sources. Drag the LibOrientator enabled iOS Device Demo or iOS Device Demo 3D layers from the Layers library onto the layer stack.
3. To test the setup, run Orientator on the iPad and turn on the camera.
4. In order to make the wireless connection from BoinxTV on the Mac to Orientator on the iPad, switch the layer setting Set Orientation By to iOS Device in BoinxTV. If the connection is not starting immediately, enter the iOS Device Name displayed in the Orientator app.

You should now see the video of the rear camera of the iPad on the screen of the iOS device model in your BoinxTV and be able to control the orientation of the model using the iPad in your hand.

If you now want to use your own app instead of Orientator App – because you want to see your app instead of the camera video, you need to add the LibOrientator framework to your app and run your app.

TIP: If you do not want to include the framework you could also simply tape an iPhone 4 or better running Orientator to the back of your iPad. You would then get the sensor data from the iPhone and the UI of your app from the iPad .

Quartz Composer Plugin

“One More Thing”: Since BoinxTV Layers are simply Quartz Compositions, the receiver of the LibOrientator system has been designed as a Quartz Composer Plugin. If you are working with Quartz Composer, you can use this to create your own application using the sensor data of an iPhone or iPad. Download the OrientatorReceiver-plugin here: http://cdn.boinx.com/software/qcplugins/OrientatorReceiver.zip